South Korea appeared set to accept North Korea's request for food aid on Saturday, despite Pyongyang's failure to meet a deadline to carry out its nuclear disarmament obligations.The two sides discussed a draft accord on rice provision to the impoverished North, as they held last-minute negotiations on the final day of economic talks in Pyongyang, pool reports said, citing an unidentified South Korean official.The official declined to elaborate.Since the February nuclear deal, which calls for the North to shut down its nuclear reactor, South Korea restarted most aid shipments to the North that had been suspended since Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests last year.... http://www.usatoday.com

Israeli troops killed four Palestinians in clashes in the West Bank on Saturday, including three militants who died when troops opened fire at their vehicle, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. Palestinian security officials said the three militants were ambushed by undercover Israeli troops in Jenin, a northern West Bank town known as a stronghold of armed groups. They said the dead militants included two members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group with ties to President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, and a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group. The car had no other occupants. The army said a special unit operating in Jenin came under fire from the car. It said the troops returned fire, hitting the vehicle. Earlier Saturday, Israeli troops searched the nearby village of Kafr Dan for militants, waging several firefights with men and killing one Palestinian, the army said....http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3063753

Photographs published in Cuba's party newspaper Saturday showed Fidel Castro meeting and shaking hands with a visiting Chinese Communist Party official, the latest sign the Cuban leader is becoming increasingly active more than eight months after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery. The Communist Party daily Granma reported that Wu Guanzheng, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Politiburo, met separately Friday with both Castro and his younger brother Raul, who has been filling in for his brother since July. A short message about the encounter was first read Friday night on state television and carried on official news services, and the new images of Castro were released Saturday. In two photographs published on Granma's Web site, Castro is seen dressed in a brown and red track suit with white detailing as he meets with Wu. In one, he sits in a rocking chair across from Wu with another member of the Chinese delegation between them, apparently taking notes on the meeting. ...http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,267646,00.html

A major immunisation campaign is to take place in Iraq in a bid to prevent an outbreak of measles. The World Health Organization and Unicef are overseeing the work of 8,000 volunteers who aim to give up to 3.9 million children the MMR vaccine. The children, aged one to five, have missed out on their routine jabs because of the instability in Iraq. Health experts warn measles could kill up to 10% of infected children if an epidemic took hold. While measles in countries like the UK is often perceived as a relatively harmless childhood illness, it kills more worldwide each year than any other disease which can be prevented by vaccination. Iraq's Ministry of Health is organising the two-week MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) immunisation campaign, which is also being funded by the European Commission....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6573451.stm

A purported Taliban statement demanded the release of a number of the group's fighters and the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the freedom of two kidnapped French aid workers. Separately, suspected Taliban militants ambushed a police patrol in eastern Afghanistan in a clash that left five militants and one police officer dead, while NATO-led troops shot and killed a suspected militant and wounded another in the south, officials said. The Taliban has claimed it abducted a French man and woman and three Afghans from the aid group Terre d'Enfance who disappeared April 3, in the southwestern Nimroz province. The apparent kidnapping came after Afghan authorities released five Taliban prisoners in exchange for an Italian newspaper reporter, who was abducted along with his two Afghan colleagues in southern Helmand province on March 5. The two Afghans were killed. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3063723

Landmark Nigerian presidential polls have begun shakily after problems in getting recently printed ballot papers to the 120,000 polling stations. Voting failed to begin as scheduled in much of the country, even though the start was delayed by two hours. Printing issues meant voting papers for the landmark poll did not arrive from South Africa until Friday evening. An overnight attack on election HQ in Abuja failed when a petrol tanker laden with detonators failed to explode. The election should result in the first transfer of power between civilian presidents since independence - but BBC reporters across the country are reporting numerous problems. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6578499.stm